Malvern Spraytec Supports Research on Targeted Pesticide Application
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10 March 2009: Malvern, UK: The European Parliament's recent vote (Strasbourg, 13 January 2009) to move towards stricter pesticide control, highlights the need for continuing research into new, compliant pesticide formulations and towards even greater control over the application of existing products.
Targeted spray deposition and efficient pesticide application are important in providing both environmental and economic benefits, as well as reducing the potential for hazardous exposure. In this regard, the Spraytec droplet size analyzer from Malvern Instruments is proving valuable to researchers at The Arable Group (TAG), the UK's leading independent crop research and consultancy organisation, in their work to improve knowledge of agrochemical spray behaviour. It is contributing to a greater understanding of the impact of pesticide use and the requirements for effective treatment using different spray systems.
Since droplet size influences spray drift, run-off and evaporation, it is a critical parameter in predicting the spray deposition patterns associated with different application systems and likely agrochemical uptake by the target species. Spraytec offers the robust operation and rapid data acquisition needed to reliably measure wide spray plumes, and is being used by TAG researchers to measure droplet size distributions in real-time during spraying.
"The Spraytec is integral to our work," said Prof. Paul Miller at TAG. "It provides us with significant insight into spray behaviour, both in the laboratory and through its use in our wind tunnel simulations of the different environmental conditions experienced during agrochemical application."
Spraytec measures sprays with droplets in the particle size range from 0.1 to 2000 microns. Its exceptionally fast data acquisition rate of up to 10 kHz allows the real-time capture of atomisation dynamics in fine detail. Thanks to flexible intuitive software, users can view the evolution of droplet size as a function of time throughout the spray event, enabling a complete understanding of different atomisation process.
For more information about TAG visit http://thearablegroup.com/
For details of Spraytec www.malvern.com/spraytec
About TAG
The Arable Group (TAG) is a non-profit organisation that employs seventy people to provide farmers with essential technical and agronomic information. It is the largest independent agronomy service in the UK with twenty three field trial locations throughout England to generate the information needed to provide an advisory service to TAG members. TAG's research activities include crop agronomy, spray applications, biodiversity, cultivations and energy use, carbon emissions and soil science. Customers for this research include farmers (directly and through crop levy funded bodies), government departments, specialist consultants and commercial companies. http://thearablegroup.com/
About Malvern Instruments
Malvern Instruments provides a range of complementary materials characterization tools that deliver inter-related measurements reflecting the complexities of particulates and disperse systems, nanomaterials and macromolecules. Analytical instruments from Malvern are used in the characterization of a wide variety of materials, from industrial bulk powders to nanomaterials and delicate macromolecules. A broad portfolio of innovative technologies is combined with intelligent, user-friendly software. These systems deliver industrially relevant data enabling our customers to make the connection between micro (such as particle size) and macro (bulk) material properties (rheology) and chemical composition (chemical imaging).
Particle size, particle shape, zeta potential, molecular weight, chemical composition and rheological properties measurements are now joined by advanced chromatography solutions (GPC/SEC), extending Malvern's technologies for protein molecular weight, size and aggregation measurements, and synthetic polymer molecular weight and distribution. The company's laboratory, at-line, on-line and in-line solutions are proven in sectors as diverse as cement production and pharmaceutical drug discovery.
Headquartered in Malvern, UK, Malvern Instruments has subsidiary organizations in all major European markets, North America, China, Korea and Japan, a joint venture in India, a global distributor network and applications laboratories around the world. www.malvern.com
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Malvern Instruments Inc.
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Tel: +1 508 768 6400
Fax: +1 508 768 6403
marisa.fraser@malvern.com
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